Suing a cruise line? Options limited

Less than 24 hours since the Carnival Triumph limped into port after five foul days in the Gulf of Mexico, the first lawsuit hit the docket.

But for the suit's chance of success, the bar is high. And that fact is something millions of cruise passengers may overlook.

Cruise lines prohibit passengers from suing over emotional distress — the kind that can result from nearly a week of overflowing toilets, scarce food and crushing boredom.

Passengers may only sue over real physical injuries. That provision is contained in the 10 to 15 pages of conditions, couched in a thicket of legalese, that accompanies each cruise ticket.

And those contracts go largely unread.

"Nobody reads them and nobody understands them," said John "Jack" Hickey, a veteran Miami maritime lawyer.

The bar against distress claims is one of several limits on a passenger's right to sue a cruise line.

"They're trying to control what one can and can't hold them responsible for," said Ross Klein, an author and cruise line expert. "Generally, there's very little you can do legally."

The limits on mental anguish claims could apply to the hapless passengers of the Carnival Triumph, making it difficult for them to seek money from Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines.

"The actual cases that can go forward are somewhat limited," said Klein, who runs a cruise passenger website and teaches sociology at Memorial University in Newfoundland. "It's going to come down to how creative the lawyers are going to be."

Also among the terms and conditions of the contract are provisions about where someone can file suit. Carnival, like other big lines such as Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, specify that all cases must be filed in Miami federal court.

That means a passenger from Missouri must retain a South Florida attorney, and travel here for depositions and hearings.

"It's their home turf," Hickey said of the cruise lines' advantage. "It definitely does discourage people."

Other terms spelled out in the contract: One must file suit within a year, damages are capped at $675,000, and some cruise lines require a prospective plaintiff to give notice of a planned lawsuit six months before actually filing.

In the Carnival Triumph incident, the vessel, carrying 4,000 passengers and crew, lost power and steering Feb. 10 while on a cruise from Galveston to Mexico. Over five miserable days, occupants suffered great discomfort on deck while tugs towed the stricken vessel to Mobile, arriving Thursday night.

Carnival offered each passenger a full refund, credit for a future cruise, and $500.

"They sit down and think 'What's the absolute minimum I have to give these people?'" Hickey said. "They're counting on most people saying that's enough."

But the lawyer disagrees. "$500 is kind of an insult," he said. "They have been exposed to all this raw sewage that has been slopping out of the toilets and sloshing on the carpet."

Passengers who balk at the payout, and loudly, may win further money concessions from Carnival, Hickey said. "The squeaky wheel does get the grease," he said.

Triumph passenger Mike Westwood, a San Antonio retiree, said many of his shipmates were poised to sue. "Several people were already talking about calling their attorneys," he said.

One such dissatisfied passenger was Brandi Dorsett, who had to shut down her pet grooming business in Brazoria, Texas, while she was trapped aboard the increasingly uncomfortable Triumph. "I lost my own wages," she said. "$500 is not enough for me."

David Singer of Hollywood, who has spent 32 years practicing maritime law, pegs the Triumph passengers' chances of getting a case in court at 50-50. "I do think there's going to be some challenges," he said.

While cruise contracts bar suits over emotional distress, passengers who feel they have a case still can go into arbitration to try to negotiate a settlement from a cruise line. "They're going to get a recovery, but they may not get the full value a jury would give them," Singer said.

When there is an actual physical injury — say a passenger slips on an ice cube and breaks a leg — settlements with cruise lines occur 98 percent of the time, according to Singer.

"If there is a physical injury and you can prove fault against the cruise line, then people are almost certain to get a recovery," he said. However, "a lot of these cases are not in the million-dollar range."

Most suits against cruise lines, the lawyers said, involve slip-and-fall type injuries. The law that applies is not so much maritime law, they said, but legal standards similar to common personal injury cases.